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How much longer before Bible is declared hate literature? Link Byfield/CALGARY SUN | July 4 2005 Canada's social conservatives suffered another painful body-blow Tuesday when the Liberals' homosexual marriage bill cleared the Commons 158 votes to 133. Now it just needs to be rubber-stamped through the Liberal Senate, and presto! it becomes the law of the land. Despite heroic resistance, despite public opinion and common sense being on their side, despite vigorous organization, despite the best efforts of the Conservative Party, the social conservatives lost. And surely they must be wondering why. Why is it that whatever is "progressive" (i.e. whatever makes the Canadian government more powerful) always triumphs, regardless of how unpopular it is, and why always at the expense of traditional authorities, especially the family and the faiths? As when the Liberals legalized abortion in 1969, staunchly refusing to admit that they had opened the way to abortion on demand (and Paul Martin's father resigned from cabinet in protest), they have now legalized same-sex marriage without admitting it will suppress religion from public life. But as anyone knows who isn't comatose, by making homosexual marriage an "equality right" under the Charter, governments have put churches on notice that they are henceforth outside the Charter. Human rights law is quite clear. You may believe and say anything you like in private, but not in public. Legally, churches are being treated as "private," at least for now. But this is completely arbitrary, illogical and changeable. In the "public" realm --which means in schools (including religious ones), community halls (including religious ones), commercial and professional businesses (including religious ones) and government programs --"Charter values" are already being relentlessly enforced, and dissent (i.e. "hate") is not tolerated. Stickers are already being plastered on news boxes in Toronto to "Tax the churches!" A Saskatchewan judge has already ruled that publishing the mere citation of anti-sodomy passages from the Bible is "discriminatory." Pro-gay MPs such as Keith Martin have already de-nounced as "venom" and "hatred" parliamentary statements against homosexual marriage. It is already a serious criminal offence to publish undefined "hatred" of homosexuals. For a little longer, the fiction will be preserved that gay equality does not conflict with freedom of belief. But then, six years ago, Parliament was insisting gay marriage would never happen. Political fictions outlive their usefulness pretty fast these days. So how much longer will it be before the Bible is formally condemned as hate literature, because it describes sodomy as worth hating? The great crusade will start with a demand to remove the Bible from commercial hotel rooms, and then from public libraries and schools, and then from courtrooms and finally from tax-deductible churches. How much longer before it is counted as abuse to tell your own children that anal sex is sinful? Can such rampant hate be tolerated in an inclusive society which promotes Charter values? Pro-marriage conservatives now face the same unhappy dilemma pro-lifers did three decades ago. Do they fight on, striving to hold an increasingly reluctant Conservative party to its pro-marriage position? Or do they just shrug and let it go? The gay marriage bill shows that there is something fundamentally flawed in Canada's system of government. Here was a serious change to a fundamental social institution which most people did not want, do not support, and probably never will. Yet it passed because the federal executive -- the cabinets and senior bureaucrats of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin -- wanted it passed. They wanted it passed because they are power-crazed and have taken upon themselves the duty of reshaping Canadian society to their own image and values. To this end, they manipulate the courts, by funding court challenges to Canadian laws and then deliberately losing, and by appointing judges who will do what they want. The single biggest problem facing this country is not gay marriage, nor the attack on traditional values. It is the unchecked power of the prime minister. If that didn't exist, neither would same-sex marriage. |
